Rick Sanchez of CNN: Yes, we did cover it

Campbell Brown engaged in a refutation of FoxNews on her show last night too. For comments, she brought on three CNN reporters who covered the event. One of them noted that giving attention to ginned up controversies meant less time to cover more important stories. Campbell Brown agreed, thanked her colleagues and proceeded to introduce the next story (something unimportant).

FoxNews is playing the refs. For CNN to "get the story" it would have to be FoxNews. It would have to have promoted the event, believed the event, cherished the event. It would have to have gone along with pushing the falsehood that 2 million people showed up at the event. That's really what this is about. FoxNews pushed the claim that 2 million people showed up at the rally. Every other credible source of information says that at most 75,000 people showed up. So instead of acknowledging a mistake, FoxNews would rather attack CNN for "missing the story". And when a FoxNews fan meets a person in the reality based community and they get to talking about this event and the FoxNews fan says there were 2 million people there and the person from the reality based community says there were 75000 people and supports that fact with "I saw it on CNN", the FoxNews fan can rebut with the claim that CNN missed the story.

CNN doesn't make this analysis but I think that's the origin of the attack. Yes, CNN does fall into the trap of giving blowhards more attention.

"Then if the function of injustice is to cause hatred wherever it appears, won't it produce strife in any group of free men or slaves and make them unable to act in common?" -- Plato

Some bullshit about Mark Levin -- Promit

[Edited by - Promit on September 19, 2009 4:06:10 PM]

Mark Levin has nothing to do with this issue.

Has O'Reilly called Sanchez a "far left smear merchant" yet?

Wasn't the "L" word unspeakable not so long ago among professional journalists? Not that I'm complaining, I just can't picture the CNN of ten years ago calling out Fox like this. Is my memory faulty, is Olbermann's nightly willingness to call a spade a spade being adopted by other news personalities on serious news networks?

That thought crossed my mind, but I think CNN was simply responding to an attack on it's credibility as a source of news. As a side note, this weekend President Obama is making the rounds of every television news outlet except FoxNews. ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo and CNN. Is that a snub? It looks so, but maybe FoxNews turned down his request to appear there.

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Original post by Zahlman What think ye?

So Fox published an ad that contained falsehoods. Big deal, just let it go. I think he's a little overreacting, especially with dramatic statements like: "[..] that's an offense to myself, and to my colleagues who risk their lives for our viewers in Irak and Afghanistan [..]".

If he really feels it's necessary to rectify the allegations, fair enough, but he could've done that in a 20 second statement rather than making an entire news report out of it.

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Original post by LessBread It looks so, but maybe FoxNews turned down his request to appear there.

No, O'Reilly was bitching about it Friday night on his program:

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President Obama will appear on five networks Sunday morning, including Spanish-language Univision, but is conspicuously skipping Fox News. The Factor asked Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace about the president's snub. "I can understand the administration's fight with some people on Fox News," Wallace said. "But Fox News Sunday is truly a fair and balanced show. There is a kind of childishness or pettiness about this. Everything is personal with this administration; they are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my thirty years in Washington. And this is a president who said he wanted to reach out to all Americans?" The Factor opined that the president is making a tactical error. "The power in the media is now with Fox News and talk radio, and the Obama administration doesn't seem to understand that. The people who need to be persuaded are watching us." Wallace added that his program will feature Bertha Lewis, CEO of the embattled ACORN organization.

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Original post by cyansoft Quote: Original post by LessBread It looks so, but maybe FoxNews turned down his request to appear there. No, O'Reilly was bitching about it Friday night on his program: Quote: President Obama will appear on five networks Sunday morning, including Spanish-language Univision, but is conspicuously skipping Fox News. The Factor asked Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace about the president's snub. "I can understand the administration's fight with some people on Fox News," Wallace said. "But Fox News Sunday is truly a fair and balanced show. There is a kind of childishness or pettiness about this. Everything is personal with this administration; they are the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my thirty years in Washington. And this is a president who said he wanted to reach out to all Americans?" The Factor opined that the president is making a tactical error. "The power in the media is now with Fox News and talk radio, and the Obama administration doesn't seem to understand that. The people who need to be persuaded are watching us." Wallace added that his program will feature Bertha Lewis, CEO of the embattled ACORN organization.

What a load of crap! Wallace claims his show is fair and balanced and then goes on to slam the White House as childish, petty, unprofessional, crybabies and so on. That's not a very professional response in my view and it confirms the wisdom of Obama's decision to avoid his show.

I expect Robert Gibbs will be asked about this at the next press briefing. I wonder what he'll say.

Sorry, but we'll get better ratings on Letterman!
Sorry, but we wanted to spare their viewers the heart attack!
Sorry, but we wanted to deal with a host who was fair and balanced!

Maybe Letterman will make this his Top-10 tomorrow?

This adds an interesting twist: Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 9/12 Protest Crowd In Behind-The-Scenes Video.

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Original post by dave j This adds an interesting twist: Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 9/12 Protest Crowd In Behind-The-Scenes Video.

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"The employee is a young, relatively inexperienced associate producer who realizes she made a mistake and has been disciplined," Bryan Boughton, Fox News Channel Washington Bureau Chief told the Huffington Post.

Translation: She needs more training in camera awareness to not get caught next time. :)

Melodramatic coverage from the right

Now, I don't really think this one rally was a watershed moment in American history (as this guy does), but those are some pretty impressive photos of the crowd from above. It looks to me like way more than 75,000 people, and that's a moving crowd with more in front and behind. If his text is to be believed at all, that 1,500,000 number came from the police crowd control.

"constitutional revolution"?

I think the number of people that attended was higher than reported.. probably in the 100 thousands. But my god, some of the signs that people were carrying were just shamefully retarded.

That's true. But I defy you to find any protest with thousands of people where there aren't dozens or hundreds of total nutters present.

Wait a minute. Why would Fox over-report the attendance? If you recall from what conservatives were saying about the war protests six years ago (but they would appreciate it if you don't), such huge numbers in the streets endanger lives. Just look at the picture Beandog posted. How are emergency vehicles supposed to get through? If you require immediate medical attention and this crowd is between you and the ambulance, then you are out of luck. Has flight become a standard capability of emergency vehicles in the intervening years?

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Original post by BeanDog Melodramatic coverage from the right Now, I don't really think this one rally was a watershed moment in American history (as this guy does), but those are some pretty impressive photos of the crowd from above. It looks to me like way more than 75,000 people, and that's a moving crowd with more in front and behind. If his text is to be believed at all, that 1,500,000 number came from the police crowd control.

I don't know if that is a real photo of the protest or not, but there have been photos of other protests that have been passed around and falsely attributed to the 9/12 protests. Also, I'm pretty sure that ABC got their the 75,000 number from police crowd control and then Freedom Works claimed that ABC was reporting that the crowd was over a million. Then, Glenn Beck said that a university, which he couldn't remember the name of, said that the crowd size was about 2 million.

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Original post by dave j This adds an interesting twist: Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 9/12 Protest Crowd In Behind-The-Scenes Video.

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Original post by BeanDog Melodramatic coverage from the right

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9/12: The Revolution Has Begun The mainstream media has reported the rally as anti-Obama or anti-government, both are partially true, but I believe that pro-Constitution would be much more accurate. Pro-Constitution and polite.

This claim might be believable if it didn't seem like the neocons are still pulling the strings.

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Original post by Kaze Quote: Original post by dave j This adds an interesting twist: Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 9/12 Protest Crowd In Behind-The-Scenes Video. Quote: Original post by BeanDog Melodramatic coverage from the right Quote: 9/12: The Revolution Has Begun The mainstream media has reported the rally as anti-Obama or anti-government, both are partially true, but I believe that pro-Constitution would be much more accurate. Pro-Constitution and polite. This claim might be believable if it didn't seem like the neocons are still pulling the strings.

Not to go off on too much of a tangent but I am curious, exactly what do you mean? When you say neocon do you mean Fox News, George Bush supporters, people who were once liberal but now promote conservative economic policy, people who are conservative but aren't paleo-conservative, or establishment republicans?

I have heard multiple definitions of 'neocon'. I have even heard some people call the term antisemitic.

It just seems to be a default insult thrown around these days.

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Original post by Platinum314 Quote: Original post by Kaze Quote: Original post by dave j This adds an interesting twist: Fox News Producer Caught Rallying 9/12 Protest Crowd In Behind-The-Scenes Video. Quote: Original post by BeanDog Melodramatic coverage from the right Quote: 9/12: The Revolution Has Begun The mainstream media has reported the rally as anti-Obama or anti-government, both are partially true, but I believe that pro-Constitution would be much more accurate. Pro-Constitution and polite. This claim might be believable if it didn't seem like the neocons are still pulling the strings. Not to go off on too much of a tangent but I am curious, exactly what do you mean? When you say neocon do you mean Fox News, George Bush supporters, people who were once liberal but now promote conservative economic policy, people who are conservative but aren't paleo-conservative, or establishment republicans? I have heard multiple definitions of 'neocon'. I have even heard some people call the term antisemitic. It just seems to be a default insult thrown around these days.

I mean the bush administration fanboys and all the other "libertarians" and "constitutional fundamentalists" that were cheering for more government power and spending 18 months ago.

Sadly, I don't think that snubbing Fox News is going to end well. Fox News viewers are just going to think of it as evidence of "liberal bias" and that Obama doesn't care about what they think. After all, Fox News viewers still don't realize that Fox has no problem with lying to them, why should they start caring now?

edit: Changed conservatives to Fox News viewers, because I highly doubt that real conservatives seriously watch Fox News.